Search results for

In an effort to name the U.S. sports organization with the grandest tradition of losing, Commentator Frank Deford explains how the U.S. Olympic Committee continues to heap blunder on top of blunder, all the while hampering U.S. Olympic stature around the world.

Top U.N. nuclear monitor Mohamed ElBaradei increases pressure on Iraq to divulge information about weapons programs, saying Baghdad must answer questions about the 12,000-page report it gave the United Nations. NPR's Lawrence Sheets reports.

Host Jacki Lyden talks with singer Aaron Neville about the ups and downs of his 30 year music career. Neville has just released Devotion, his first-ever collection of inspirational songs and a new book, The Brothers, which tells of his colorful past encompassing drug addiction, burglary and chart- topping records.

Throughout this campaign year, education has ranked among the top concerns of voters -- especially those suburban women who often cross party lines and decide electoral outcomes. NPR's David Welna went to the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights to talk to moms with school-age children in a neighborhood George W. Bush visited this week.

Number 21 on the Billboard top 100 this week: India Arie, with her first CD, Acoustic Soul. She has drawn impressive comparisons to Roberta Flack, Tracy Chapman and Bill Withers. Reviewer Sarah Bardeen says that Arie deserves the success. India Arie's Acoustic Soul is on Motown Records.

Today President Bush conferred with China Vice Premier Qian Qichen -- the highest ranking official from Beijing since the administration took office. Qian's top priority is waylaying the proposed sale of advanced anti-missile technology to Taiwan. The Bush administration must decide next month whether to make the sale. Human rights was also a topic of discussion.

Pentagon top adviser and one of the chief architects of the war in Iraq, Douglas Feith, resigns. Feith, a staunch neo-conservative with close ties to Israel, is a controversial figure, especially for his role in the use of intelligence to justify the war in Iraq.

Siobhan Armstrong is one of today's top Irish harpers. From the BBC Studios in Dublin, she plays a pair of tunes by the most famous of all Irish harpers, Turlough Carolan: "Carolan's Favorite Jig" and "Farewell to Music."

President Bush nominates Trade Representative Rob Portman as the White House budget director. Portman is a Washington insider and longtime friend of the president. Bush also selected Susan Schwab, the deputy trade representative, to move up to the top trade job, replacing Portman.

Performance Today is on the road in Portland, Ore., for the 35th anniversary season of Chamber Music Northwest — a month of concerts by top-shelf musicians, on the campus of Reed College.

Top officials of the 9/11 Commission, Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, push Congress to pass an intelligence reform bill. NPR's David Welna reports.

Two top executives and the outside auditor exit the federally backed mortgage giant Fannie Mae after the Securities and Exchange Commission finds fault with the company's accounting. NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Mike McNamee of Business Week.

The year 2005 saw World Music grow in two directions: by exploring its most basic roots, and by exploring new areas, through technology and collaboration. Marco Werman give us a glimpse of his top picks of the year.

Farai Chideya talks with music writers Tom Terrell and Christina Roden about "Legends of African Music" — a collection of some of the continent's top artists featured in this month's Global Rhythm magazine.

The film American Gangster topped the box office this weekend. Americans love to watch gangsters — men who buck the system and whack the competition. Producer Mark Rowland talks about the popularity of the gangster in American culture, and the anti-hero's resonance in hip-hop culture.

A new collection of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers DVDs from Warner Home Video is out, called the Astaire and Rogers Collection, Vol. 1. It includes "Top Hat" and "Swing Time."

NPR's Howard Berkes reports on the women's bobsled competition for the 2002 Olympic in Salt Lake City. After competing in three Olympic competitions, Bonny Warner, one of the top American drivers, is making her last attempt to win an Olympic medal.

A miniature poodle is the upset winner of the nation's most prestigious dog show. Surrey Spice Girl, a 3 year old with black pompoms, beat out the favorites with her performance. Robert Siegel talks with Deborah Woods, author of Top Dogs: Making it to Westminster. Woods' book is published by Hungry Minds, January 2002.

Investigators looking into the space shuttle Columbia accident say NASA workers made safety a top priority, but may have become so comfortable with successful missions that they didn't keep track of small issues that can turn deadly. NPR's Richard Harris reports.

A car bomb explodes near the Baghdad police station, wounding at least 14 people and damaging the offices of the U.S.-appointed police chief. The blast comes four days after an explosion at a Najaf mosque killed a top Shiite cleric and at least 80 others. Hear NPR's Ivan Watson and Fawaz Gerges of Sarah Lawrence College.